By Dov Lieber in Tel Aviv, Summer Said in Dubai and Lara Seligman in Washington

Hamas's senior leaders -- long hiding in host countries across the Middle East -- flew this past weekend to the group's headquarters in the Qatari capital of Doha. On the agenda: A new U.S. cease-fire plan for Gaza, apparently with Israeli backing.

Israel had vowed to track down and kill every Hamas member involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that left 1,200 Israelis dead and some 250 hostages taken but hitting them in Qatar, a Gulf ally of the U.S., was off limits. Now, Israeli officials had a shot and decided no taboo would stop them from taking it -- even at the risk of straining relations with the Trump administration.

By noon Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given the green light for an audacious attack on Qatari soil, targeting a residence used by Hamas figures in the dusty northern suburbs of Doha -- the same place where the militant group's leaders celebrated the Oct. 7 attacks.

More than 10 Israeli jet fighters fired long-range munitions at the house, causing explosions heard across the capital. It was a sharp escalation of Israel's tactics against the U.S.-designated terrorist group, targeting its leaders in a sovereign country that mediates Gaza peace talks and hosts the most important U.S. air base in the region.

Israel went after Hamas leaders including Khalil Al-Hayya and Zahir Jabarin, political operatives who steer the group's international relations and help raise funds but don't join in fighting like the military wing in Gaza. According to Hamas, the leadership survived the strike, while five lower-ranking members were killed. Israel has yet to comment on the results of the attack.

If the strike didn't hit the intended targets, it still sent a clear message. When it comes to its security, Israel will show very little concern for red lines or diplomatic fallout, and old havens aren't reliably safe anymore.

"The days are over that terrorist leaders will have immunity anywhere," Netanyahu said at an event Tuesday evening.

This account is based on interviews with Israeli officials, Qatari and other Arab officials, and people in the U.S. military and government.

In the weeks before the attack, Hamas leaders got a vague but stern warning: Tighten security around your meetings, Egyptian and Turkish officials told them.

Cease-fire talks were breaking down. Israel was essentially demanding a Hamas surrender. Defense Minister Israel Katz had threatened to annihilate the Gaza-based group's overseas leaders if militants didn't lay down their arms.

Indeed, Israel began preparing months ago for a complex attack on Hamas leaders outside of Gaza. It had already killed off most of the militant group's senior fighters inside Gaza, including Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, architects of the Oct. 7 attacks.

Israel had also successfully completed military and intelligence operations outside its borders that highlighted its prowess and appetite for using it. Intelligence operatives killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a heavily guarded military guesthouse in Tehran and wounded thousands of members of Lebanon's Hezbollah militia by simultaneously exploding their pagers.

Its air force had honed tactics for attacking at great distances with repeated strikes on the Houthi militia in Yemen and hundreds of missions over Iran, each more than 1,000 miles away.

Now the target was Doha, a seaside city where gleaming skyscrapers and artificial islands sit next to traditional Arab markets. Qatar has hosted Hamas for more than a decade, an arrangement tacitly endorsed by the U.S. to keep backchannels open with a group that Western officials can't speak to openly.

Israel assigned at least 10 warplanes to the operation, each carrying long-range "over the horizon" missiles that could hit their targets from a safe distance. The goal was to catch the Hamas leaders when they gathered for a meeting, to kill as many as possible while limiting unintended deaths.

The distance from Tel Aviv to Doha is well over 1,000 miles. But the jets could get close enough to use long-range guided missiles without flying directly over the sensitive airspace of Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.

"You can shoot from pretty far away," said Amir Avivi, a former senior military official who is close to the current government. "You don't need to be above Qatar to do it."

Hamas's political leaders typically divide their time between Qatar, Egypt and Turkey. Over the weekend, they trickled into Doha to discuss a new U.S. idea for ending the war. The U.S. called on the group to hand over its remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and a U.S. guarantee of talks to end the war, said Arab officials familiar with the discussions.

Mediators considered the proposal a nonstarter because Hamas was expected to give up its leverage without addressing any of the difficult issues around ending the war. But Hamas was under heavy pressure from the war's devastation and the U.S. to bend to a deal.

"The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well," President Trump wrote Sunday on social media. "I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!"

Hamas leaders were to meet Tuesday to discuss the proposal. At noon Israel time, Netanyahu convened his security chiefs and gave the go-ahead for the attack.

As the jets moved in to strike, Israel's military told their American counterparts that an attack on Hamas targets was coming minutes before missiles were launched but didn't disclose an exact location, according to U.S. officials. The U.S. military officials saw the missiles launch and inferred the target. Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, learned of the strike en route to Cairo and spoke with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a U.S. official said.

The White House said the military notified Trump, who directed his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to inform Qatar.

The Israeli planes launched more than 10 missiles at Hamas's Doha offices from outside Qatari airspace. Video verified by Storyful, which like The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp, captured the moment of impact, with people breaking into a run as enormous blasts rang out. Other verified videos showed smoke rising over the Qatari capital.

Unlike in previous attacks in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, where Israel worked hard to maintain a veneer of deniability, this time it claimed the strike right away in a public announcement by the military -- another sign that the old rules were changing.

Back in Jerusalem, as the attacks were becoming public, the U.S. Embassy was hosting a belated July 4 celebration that had been canceled during Israel's war with Iran. Songs like "We Are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You" blasted over the loudspeakers, as American service members and Israeli generals hobnobbed over hot dogs and hamburgers.

At the end of the night, Netanyahu addressed the crowd and joked, to loud applause, that he'd hoped to speak earlier in the evening but was "otherwise engaged."

Things were less celebratory at the White House, where officials were working to manage the diplomatic fallout from an attack by one U.S. ally against another. Qatar said its leader, Sheikh Tamim al-Thani, spoke with Trump and condemned the attack, as did nearly every Arab neighbor.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he spoke with Netanyahu after the strike, which "does not advance Israel or America's goals." Eliminating Hamas was "a worthy goal," Trump said, adding that he "felt very badly about the location of the attack."

Later Tuesday, Trump told reporters that Israel did not notify him in advance of the strike, adding that he was "very unhappy about every aspect" of the operation.

Late Tuesday in Doha, security was tight. A Hamas official said he himself was unable to access the site of the attack after it was cordoned off. Hamas members were refusing to meet outsiders and were keeping a low profile.

"The security threat hasn't gone yet," he said.

Write to Dov Lieber at dov.lieber@wsj.com, Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com and Lara Seligman at lara.seligman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 09, 2025 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT)

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